


My Second Theme Week

by FriendshipCastle



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Sai Week 2015, because Sai's life is Not Good for a while there, probably some weird stuff in here so it gets a T
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-12-01
Packaged: 2018-05-03 07:43:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5282507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FriendshipCastle/pseuds/FriendshipCastle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>monday - root<br/>tuesday - ink<br/>wednesday - birthday<br/>thursday - feelings<br/>friday - new things<br/>saturday - relationships<br/>sunday - pop lock and crop it</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Root

The seal expert held up the vice grips and gave a tired smile. “It’s an oldie but a goodie; say ahhh.”

Sai opened his mouth wide and made a small noise.

“Louder, kiddo,” she said.

Sai retracted his tongue. “What?”

“It loosens up your jaw and relaxes your throat when you—“

“I’m not named Kido.”

She blinked. “What? You— Oh. No, it’s just… Sorry, it’s a nickname.”

Sai watched her for a moment, then said, “What is a nickname? Is it like a code name?”

The seal expert’s brow winkled. Her mouth moved a few times before she finally said, “Yes.” She sounded uncertain, though. If Sai had received an answer in that tone from a target, he would have applied greater force to get the true answer. This woman was not a target, however. The validity of her answers was immaterial. He probably shouldn’t even be asking her questions in the middle of this procedure. He stuck his tongue out and made the vowel sound she had requested.

The vice grips clamped on to the meat of his tongue, pulling it forward painfully. The strap around Sai’s forehead dug into his eyebrows, but he kept up the ‘ahhhh.’ Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, an automatic response to pain and physical duress. He kept himself from blinking because he knew it would impede his vision.

The seal expert worked with the edge of her own tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. He could feel the cold of her brush over his tastebuds. The ink warmed to his body temperature quickly, but he tried to remember the shapes that the coldness had taken. Broad, sure strokes. Sai painted like that on days when the images in his mind were clear. He would let his hand wander, trusting it to bend the picture to the page. 

“Just one more minute,” the seal expert said, setting her brush back in its pot. She sketched several one-handed signs in the air, staring intensely at Sai’s tongue, and then held out her hand palm up.

Danzo had told Sai about this step in the process. It was a new innovation. Sai placed his own palm against the seal expert’s, pressing down gently. 

“Leave it there,” she said, and nicked his palm with one of her fingernails. The tempered steel’s waved pattern across the false nails looked like colored polish, but her index fingertip was now red. She held it over his tongue and watched for a moment, observing something Sai couldn’t see from his angle of observation. 

“All right,” she said. “Swallow.”

Sai blinked, swallowed, and tasted his own blood in the seal.

“That’s done,” the seal expert said. She smiled at Sai again, the edges of her mouth tucking in tight beneath her round cheeks. A dimple appeared. She wouldn’t look him in the eye.

“Thank you,” Sai said. He considered whether his voice sounded any different now. The curl of his tongue against his teeth had felt tentative, but his vocal cords had not changed. They would not change for a few years still; he sounded as he always had. The seal itself would not even be visible without chakra activation.

“I hope you never have to use it,” the seal expert said, startling Sai out of his oral contemplation.

“Thank you,” he said again, and left. 

For the rest of the day, he could not stop licking his teeth. He knew that there would be nothing there, but the urge to double- and triple- and quadruple-check was overwhelming. It was good he didn’t see Danzo all day. The man would not like to see his student with a nervous tic. He asked Shin about it, though.

“It does feel funny for a bit,” Shin said. “You get used to it. What did you notice most about the process? I bet it was the lines, wasn’t it?”

Sai nodded. 

“Want to try and draw the seal expert from memory, to see if we had the same one?”

Sai nodded again, and reached for his pen. His brother always knew exactly what to say.


	2. Ink

Facial tattoos were common in Konoha. Clan tattoos were drawn on new and fresh, placed almost at birth. You could tell at a glance if someone was Akimichi or Nohara or Inuzuka. Some civilians got them, even. They were careful not to get too close to clan tattoos, though; it wouldn’t pay to be mistaken for a ninja just for vanity’s sake.

“What is your clan, Naruto?” Sai asked as Team Seven—led by Captain Yamato—leapt through the trees on a rather routine mission.

Naruto shrugged. “I don’t really have one. I’m Uzumaki but I’ve never met another one.”

“Why are your clan tattoos so thin?” Sai said. “They seem to be a balance between subtle and glaringly obvious, and I don’t think they succeed.”

“Hey!”

“I was simply curious.”

Naruto’s glare faded into an eyeroll. “You suck, Sai.”

“He’s had them forever,” Sakura said. “Who gave them to you, actually? I never asked.”

Naruto shrugged. “I ‘unno. Just have ‘em, I guess. I don’t think they’re for a clan or anything.”

“What would they be for, then?”

Naruto shrugged again. “Just, like, face-stuff?”

“Face… stuff,” Sakura sighed. “Yeah, okay. Face stuff, sure.”

“Would you like me to darken them for you?” Sai said.

Sakura stumbled. Ahead of them, Captain Yamato called at them to keep up and stop chatting so much, and Sakura quickly added, “Yeah, what he said. Shut up, guys.” She picked up the pace.

“That’s okay,” Naruto told Sai. “I like ‘em the way they are. I was born with ‘em, yanno, so it’s not a big deal.”

“Hurry up!” Sakura snarled back to them.

Later, she told Sai that Naruto didn’t need his facial whiskers touched up. While Naruto was taking what he'd announced as 'an epic dump,' Sakura awkwardly explained, “When he, uh… There’s this thing that happens where he, uh…”

“The fox possesses him?” Sai guessed.

“Yeah,” Sakura said. She was cleaning her med kit scalpels with ruthless efficiency and avoiding eye contact. Sai translated this into discomfort with the topic, but he was still curious.

“What ‘thing’ happens when he is possessed?” he asked.

“…His face changes. The tattoos change a bit. They’re rougher. Bigger. I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention, I just saw that something was different.”

“Interesting. I wonder what quality in the ink changes it. It’s clearly chakra-charged, but in what way…?”

Sakura was staring at him, hands still against her kit. “Someone tattooed him with chakra ink?”

“If it changes when he is using different chakra then I can only assume—"

“Who would do that to a baby?” A food pill burst in her fist as she glared at the ground. 

“I do not know anyone in particular who specializes in tattooing infants,” Sai said. “I was only tattooed when I was eight.”

Sakura’s head snapped up. “What? You’re tattooed?” Sai stuck his tongue out and Sakura winced. “Oh, right. I forgot. Sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?”

“It’s so… permanent.”

“Yes. As is my commitment to the life of an ANBU ninja. It is why we are trusted with classified missions and certain dangerous secrets.”

Sakura dusted off her hands and started tucking her medical supplies away again. “I guess. It doesn’t seem right, though. Ink that changes, hides or just looks different depending on the situation? I don’t know.”

“We are ninja,” Sai said. “We must change, hide, and adapt to situations.”

Sakura nodded, but she still had a faint line between her brows. She did not say anything more.


	3. Birthday

The flak vest was practical and new and stiff and it smelled like the kind of clean that could only be achieved through vile chemical baths. Sai missed his crop top. He had debated slicing off the bottom of the vest, but that would render most of the pockets and handy zippered pouches moot. He settled for sucking his stomach in at every opportunity, trying to get a cushion of air between himself and the hated vest. It was a small distraction as they set up the medical tent city that would be the base camp for major injuries.

He was standing on the edge of camp with his back slightly hunched, trying to get a breeze to his belly button, when Sakura wandered up beside him and sighed heavily. 

Sai concentrated. He could feel the points of his hips pressing into the taut skin as he dragged his abdominals towards his spine.

Sakura sighed again. 

With a huff, Sai surrendered to his body’s need to breathe. His gut pressed into the vest. Even the baggy cotton shirt felt itchy against his belly.

Sakura sighed even louder and squatted down on the ground. The lights behind them meant that her face was in shadow, her body curved away from the camp. It was getting very late. The other sentries around would be switching out soon, and Sai would be able to go lie down for a few hours. Maybe he would take off the vest and roll his shirt up. Sai felt like he was in disguise as a standard chunin/jonin. Uniforms created a sense of unity (it was right there in the prefix) but he just wanted his crop tops back.

“Sai, ask me what’s wrong,” Sakura snapped. 

“What’s wrong, Sakura?” Sai asked. Apparently he had missed another social cue of some kind—she always got snappish when he’d failed to pick up on something.

“It’s the end of the world and Naruto’s birthday is in less than a week,” she said.

Sai blinked down at her. “Oh?”

“Yeah. Shitty timing.”

“Why?”

“He probably won’t even get cake.” Her laugh was short and it sounded false to Sai’s ears. She wasn’t smiling. 

“A pity,” Sai said, since it seemed like the right sentiment to express.

“Yeah. When’s your birthday, Sai?”

“I don’t have one.”

“…Oh. Right. Root.”

“Yes.”

Sakura rubbed her face with both hands. “You know, my parents always tried to get me to have a few friends over for my birthday. They’d have a party. It was just me and Ino for a while, and then it wasn’t anyone except family. And they thought that was sad. I mean, they didn’t say it, but I could tell they thought it was sad that I didn’t have anyone to come to my birthday parties. They really, really don’t understand what it’s like to be a ninja. I couldn’t really explain it to them, why I didn’t care about the little party and the little cake. Birthdays aren’t really important.”

“I disagree,” Sai said. “In Root, every New Year is a sign that we have survived. My brother and I would often make each other a small gift for the occasion, and once we got drunk and made up our own poem, though we didn’t write it down so I can’t remember it. Even after his death, I spend New Years’ drawing whatever I felt like and reflecting on my successes in the previous year. It’s like a birthday. It’s a celebration of life.”

Sakura was staring at him. Sai realized he was standing with his hands in fists, his shoulders tense. He took a quiet, deep breath.

“You’re right,” Sakura said. She straightened up out of her crouch and though her brow was wrinkled, she was smiling a small, genuine smile. “Thank you, Sai.”

“For what?”

Sakura shrugged. “I don’t know. Being my friend.”

Sai blinked. “Oh. You’re welcome.”

Sakura bit her lip for a moment, then leaned forward and rested her hand on his shoulder. She looked like she was thinking about something very hard as she leaned forward. Sai watched her face get closer to his. Perhaps she was going to whisper something in his ear.

Perhaps not. She leaned away again and gave his shoulder a squeeze before she let him go. “All right. I’ll see you?”

“Yes,” Sai said. He watched her go. Her steps were hesitant at first, but he saw her change. The transformation into a medic was always sharp, a clean movement into certainty. Sakura knew her work and it showed in how she strode toward it, shoulders back, arms swinging at her sides. Sai watched her backbone stiffen and he nodded to himself.


	4. Feelings

Sai twitched awake in bed, in the dark, with tears on his face and a tightness in his chest. He had dreamed of death and of Shin and it had felt quite real, unlike the thin dreams he’d had when he was ANBU. Those had always been dreams, and clearly so, but this? It had been… Well.

Sai sat up and rubbed at his sternum. He looked around his shadowed apartment. His fingers were quivering. The burn behind his eyes was not fading.

A glass of water from the tap did not help at all, and a lot of it came back up when his breathing hitched.

A few breathing exercises eased the tension in his chest.

A tissue cleared away the older tears but new ones hovered, misting Sai’s gaze.

There were missions he had to prepare for, testimonies to write for the massive file that Lady Tsunade and Shizune were compiling about the Fourth Ninja War, a few jutsu he could be working on. All of these would require light, though. Sai did not want to see himself in the light. In darkness, he was a breeze in the air, a steady cycle of heat and oxygen and blood. He was not shaking hands and shuddering heart; he was a shade.

Sai sat on the floor, his back to the wall, and waited for the sun to rise. 

Before the sun came up, however, his vigil was interrupted by a small, polite knock on his window. Sai stared at it. When he opened the window, kunai in hand, he found Rock Lee perched on his windowsill.

“Hi, Sai!” Lee said in a whisper-shout. “Good morning to you! I was wondering if you would like to go on an early run around the city with me.”

“…What?” Sai said.

“I understand that the hour is early and you may be weary, but I thought I would offer. Any friend is welcome to join my workout!” Lee extended a hand, an offering.

Sai stared at the hand. “Oh?”

“Yes! I love company.”

Sai nodded slowly. “Yes. I think… Thank you, Lee.”

Lee cocked his head to the side, eyes eternally earnest. “Of course! Perhaps you would like to put some pants on before our run? I have a spare jumpsuit, if you’d like.”

Sai considered. “Yes. Thank you.”

Lee beamed, tears welling in the corners of his eyes. “Wonderful! Here you are—it is moisture-wicking and very breathable.”

Sai tugged the jumpsuit to his waist and tied off the arms around his hips. “All right. Let’s go.”


	5. New Things

Sai went to Captain Yamato for suggestions. The man had a way of explaining things that was very helpful, and Sai needed some clear-cut advice.

“What is the protocol for meeting a disgraced and formerly outcast member of your current team?” Sai said, reading his query off of his notes. It had taken him a long time to distill the essence of the question.

Yamato blinked at him over the steaming bowl of soup that he had ordered. Slowly, he put his spoon down. “I think I understand your question, but could you go into specifics for me? Just to clarify.”

“I would like to know when and how I should approach Uchiha Sasuke, now that he has been returned to the village.”

“Ah. Yes. I thought that was your question.” Yamato cleared his throat. “Well. This is an unusual situation. I haven’t met him, myself. Sasuke… isn’t really talking to anyone except Naruto, Sakura, the Hokage, and Kakashi-senpai at the moment. I don’t know what the plan is for him. It would be better for your teammates to facilitate any introductions.”

“Thank you,” Sai said.

“You’re welcome,” Yamato said as he picked up his spoon again. He stared at his soup for a moment, then sighed and swirled the broth. “I’m not sure what more advice I can offer. Good luck.”

So Sai went to Sakura, because Kakashi was spending most of his time in the hospital now that Guy was there. Sakura was also at the hospital, but she could multitask.

“He won’t talk to me,” she said as she administered anesthesia to a surgery patient. “He never would anyway. Naruto can make him talk, but it’s mostly aggressive testosterone bullshit. It makes Sasuke have a facial expression, though, so Tsunade keeps bringing Naruto back in. Here, could you hold the mask in place? We’re out of elastic so I have to tie the oxygen masks on with…” Sakura finished knotting the mask in place, shook her head as if dislodging the end of her sentence, and concluded, “String. There we go, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Sakura lowered the unconscious surgery patient back to the table and brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “Look, Sai, it’s been a couple months and he’s still not allowed out of the village. You’ll have plenty of time to meet him.”

“But I haven’t,” Sai said. “He doesn’t leave his allotted apartment.”

“True.” Sakura tapped her chin with a finger for a moment. “All right, here; I have to rectify a field tracheotomy at four today but after that we could go get a drink and I can have Naruto bring Sasuke. Does that work?”

“Yes. Thank you,” Sai said.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Now, I have to open this ninja up to see where the lightning chakra discharged in her internal organs, so I think you should go.”

Sai ducked out. He spent the day practicing the delicate curls of ink message-mice, trying to knot up their contents in such a way that they could reform in order to return replies. Sending time-sensitive messages via ink mice had the potential to make communication much quicker, and it was quite adorable.

When he arrived at the restaurant, he heard Naruto before he noticed anything else. He saw Sakura’s pink hair at a corner table. But Sai felt Sasuke. There was a cold presence in that corner, dimmed but obvious nonetheless, like wrapping a meat cleaver in a dishtowel. 

Naruto was the only one unaffected by Sasuke’s eerie stillness and silence. He was explaining something that involved a lot of sound effects. It was either some sort of fight he’d recently had with a detonations specialist, or his latest misadventure in the bathroom. 

“…and then Granny Tsunade said I could take the weekend off,” Naruto was saying as Sai walked up.

“Hello,” Sai said.

Sasuke didn’t even look at him. He was staring into the middle distance, looking very bored.

“Heya, Sai,” Naruto said. “Hey, you didn’t hear my epic story! Okay, so—“

“If you tell the story of your most recent food poisoning one more time, I will stab you through the eyeball with your own arm,” Sasuke droned.

Naruto aimed his middle finger at Sasuke. “You’re mean.”

“We knew that already,” Sai said. “Because he attempted to kill at least two out of three of us.”

This was apparently not a joke in the way that Sai had hoped it would be. No one at the table even smiled. Sakura had her face buried in her hands, and Naruto was gritting his teeth. Sasuke did look at Sai, though. He did so with a very dark frown.

Sai smiled and pulled out a chair. “I am Sai, and you are Uchiha Sasuke. It is pleasant to meet you at last, after all I have heard from your former teammates. Have you ordered yet?”

“No,” Sasuke said, and stood up. “I’m leaving.”

“Why?” Sai asked. “You don’t have any plans. You’re a pariah. Do you know what that means?”

“I’m not _Naruto_ ,” Sasuke snarled. “I know what a _pariah_ is.” He had a hand on the sword he wore strapped low behind his hips.

“Hey!” Naruto said.

“Careful,” Sakura said, her tone warning. 

Sai considered reaching for a weapon of his own, then folded his hands very deliberately on the table, attempting to radiate nonthreatening innocence. “You should definitely stay with us, then; one Naruto is more than enough.”

“Very true,” Sakura said.

“ _Hey_!”

Sasuke and Sai were staring at each other. Sai could see why the boy Kiba still called him ‘replacement Sasuke.’ Both Sai and Sasuke were dark-haired, pale, and wore clothing that, when compared to what other male ninja wore, could kindly be called ‘revealing.’ There were clear differences, though, or at least Sai thought that they looked fairly different from each other. Sai wondered if his own eyes seemed that dead to other people.

Slowly, Sasuke sank back into his chair. He took his hand off the hilt of his sword. “Fine.”

Sai smiled wider, feeling the pull in the muscles at the corners of his mouth. He said, “Wonderful.”


	6. Relationships

“You have to have two names,” Tsunade sighed, massaging her temples. “Why is this so hard to understand? Everyone needs first name and a last name now. It’s a cataloguing thing, since we’ve officially shut down Danzo’s fucked up training regimen. Just choose a surname. Pick your favorite food, your favorite color, your favorite, I don’t know, favorite pen, whatever. I don’t care.”

Sai blinked. “May I have time to think?”

“That’s what this is,” Tsunade said. She motioned between herself and Sai, swatting at the space. “This is me giving you two minutes to pick a goddamn last name.”

Shizune cleared her throat. “But really you can have until the end of the week to pick a name.”

Tsunade thumped her cheek onto her fist and mumbled something that sounded like, “Fucking undermining my authority.”

Shizune smiled and nodded at Sai, a dismissal. Sai went.

He thought for some time about what to choose. He did have a favorite brand of pen, but the name of the company belonged to someone else. In fact, all the names he could think of came from someone else; an artist he admired, a brand of paper or notebooks, an author of self-help books that had truly helped him. Or they were drawing terms he used on a regular basis. None of the names were his. He had a codename, Sai, that had been intended as something temporary. He didn’t want to take his brother’s name for his own, either. Calling himself 'Shin Sai' felt too sad. 

Who _did_ he want to think of when he heard his name? A second name would connect him with an idea or a person who was not simply Sai. He would have to select such an association very carefully.

He went to Yamato’s apartment.

“I don’t have a last name either,” Yamato reminded him.

“So you have to choose one,” Sai said. “I will choose the same one you do.”

Yamato opened and shut his mouth a few times. Sai waited for him to say something. When he finally did, it was, “I’m taking Kakashi’s last name.”

“All right,” Sai said. “Then I will, too.”

“You should… probably ask him.”

“Oh. All right. Do you know where he is?”

“He’s with Guy at his physical therapy appointment. At the hospital.”

Sai nodded. “When are you turning in your paperwork, Captain Yamato?”

“Um. Whenever Kakashi gets back?”

“Oh, he’s coming here?”

Yamato ran a hand through his hair and said, “Yes. Later.”

“May I wait with you?”

“I, uh. I’m not really up for entertaining—“

“I can read a book. If it’s no trouble.”

Sai perused Yamato’s collection of furniture books and guides to trees, but found a few novels at the back of the shelf that looked more interesting. Yamato glanced up and coughed when he saw what Sai had chosen, but then he went back to his own book. Sai was barely through the first chapter of a story that seemed to have a lot of emotional dissection between the protagonist and the mysterious son of the daimyo when Kakashi shuffled through the door.

Yamato stood up immediately. “And how is Guy?”

“Doing better,” Kakashi said. “Lee’s hanging out with him. We doing this?”

“Ah, yes. Um.” Yamato rubbed the back of his neck. Sai went hunting for a bookmark.

Kakashi cocked his head to the side. “What? Getting cold feet?”

Sai stuck a piece of scrap paper in the book to mark his place and stood up. “May I also take your last name, Kakashi?”

Kakashi blinked. “Oh. Hey, Sai. You want to be a Hatake too? Why?”

“I would like to be reminded of both of the men who led my first team when my full name is said,” Sai said. “Yamato told me that he is taking your name, and I would be honored to have it as well.”

“Yeah? Well, okay. Guess I can just start passing the name around. Not like I’m doing anything with it, after all,” Kakashi said. “We probably need a witness anyway.”

“Wait, really?” Yamato said.

“Sure. You tell him how you’re getting my last name?”

“Ah. No.”

“No?” Kakashi’s eyes crinkled up over his mask. “Great. Come on, guys. Let’s do this.”

Sai watched Yamato and Kakashi fill out joint paperwork for name changes that brought new members into a clan. Yamato had him sign a line as a witness but his hand was covering up the rest of the document, spread across lines of text to hide them. Sai didn’t pry. He had to fill out a related form, since he was taking the Hatake name too, but Yamato told him that he didn’t need any witnessing or anything like that.

“Should we wear rings, Tenzo?” Kakashi murmured.

“If you would like,” Yamato said.

“Do I have to wear a symbol of—?”

“No, Sai, you don’t,” Yamato said. “Kakashi-senpai, you shut up.”

Sai filled out a little card with his new name and handed it to the ninja staffing the Civilian Legal Forms desk. And that was that. Hatake Sai.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sai respecting Yamato and being his weird adopted teen son is very important to me.


	7. Pop Lock and Crop It

Ino said, “You know, you’re really rocking your best feature, but I think you could accentuate it even more. Interested?”

Sai was not alone when he went in for modifications to his physical appearance this time. It was also a deliberate choice. Lee wouldn’t come because he was, amazingly, uncomfortable around needles and felt no need to challenge this fear. Naruto said he was busy and Sakura had coughed in a way that sounded like ‘Sasuke,’ which made Naruto stutter and blush and shut the door to his apartment with a huff.

Sai had a girl on each side of him, holding his hands, when he got his bellybutton pierced.

He could not stop staring at the shake of the little beads. Every breath he took moved them. Every twitch sent them sparkling. 

“A whole new level of navel-gazing,” Sakura sighed.

“Now we have to take him out dancing,” Ino said.

“No!”

“Yes! Why else get him so pretty? We have to show him off!”

“He’s not an object, Ino!”

“Um,” Sai said.

Both girls turned to glare at him. “What?”

“I would like to show off my navel,” Sai said.

Sakura rubbed her forehead. “Of course you would. It’s all you ever do.”

“And so he should! He’s got a beautiful tummy!” Ino threw an arm around Sai’s shoulders and grinned up at him. “Let’s take him somewhere nice.”

Sai had a girl on each side of him, holding his arms, when he was introduced to the underground ninja club scene that he’d always known existed but didn’t feel like entering.

There were a lot of lights. The music had a definite sensation rather than a definite sound. His eardrums shut down in the first minute in the club and all he could feel was the bass line in his chest. There was a strange humidity, the pressure of many people in a small space. Everyone was very close together, or else they were crowded around the edges around tiny tables.

Ino and Sakura steered him to the middle of the dance floor and rocked him back and forth between them, keeping him in time with the beat. They were shouting things but Sai closed his eyes and let himself be swayed with the music. He felt people all around him, bumping occasionally on his back or hips or shoulders. Hands on his arms, steering him in a puppeted dance that he didn’t mind at all.

The beat changed, ramping up in its intensity. Sai bounced on his heels a bit to match the speed. It didn’t feel like enough, though, so he gently tugged his arms away from the girls and brought them into the dance.

When he glanced around to check that their feelings were not hurt, he found that they were dancing together, shoving each other and laughing and tugging one another closer before pushing away again. Sakura caught his eye and gave him a thumbs-up, which presumably meant that he should keep doing what he was doing.

Sai had a girl under each arm, holding him up, when he finally allowed them to take him home. The world sounded like it was underwater, his ears blown by the music. He ached. Sweat was just starting to dry on his forehead and stomach and under his arms.

“That was amazing,” he heard Ino say.

“We should go out every weekend we’re all free,” Sakura agreed.

“Yes,” Sai said with a big smile. “This was beautiful.” He squeezed both girls closer and added, “We’re beautiful.”

“Oh my god,” Sakura laughed.

“He knows what’s up,” Ino said proudly.

Sai just kept smiling.


End file.
